Talk of congestion pricing
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- March
- 14
You can’t go to a transportation meeting in New York these days without talk of congestion pricing coming up.With the deadline coming for the state to approve it — it has to be done by the end of the month to secure federal money needed to prepare mass transit systems for extra riders — supporters are wasting no opportunity to talk it up.The annual meeting of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council on Thursday was no exception.”Unsurprisingly, I’m going to call on each and every person in this room to help us pass congestion pricing,” New York City Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan told the council and more than 100 people in the audience at New York University’s Kimmel Center. “We have until March 31st to get this done….This is one of the surefire ways to fund critical regional transportation efforts. We need to get it done and we need to get it done now.”After the meeting, I asked Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano, a NYMTC member, what he thought of the idea.The way it’s proposed now, he said, “it imposes too much on people from Westchester.”If it’s approved, motorists would pay $8 to drive across 60th Street in Manhattan generally during business hours.Spano had not thought of a way that would make it more palatable. And his opposition certainly did not seem as strong as that of state Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, who is hot to defeat the plan. Brodsky, with several other legislators, has proposed an alternate idea that relies on increased taxi fares and fines for parking violations.The congestion pricing idea has many supporters who see it as a way to encourage — and help fund — mass transportation, easing congestion and cutting pollution. They say it has worked well in other cities, such as London. Others see it as unfair to people who drive from the Lower Hudson Valley, Long Island and New York City’s outer boroughs.












